President-elect Donald Trump tapped former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi as his next pick for attorney general, following former Rep. Matt Gaetz’s withdrawal earlier in the day.
Bondi served as attorney general of Florida from 2011 to 2019. However, she is best known for serving as one of Trump’s defense lawyers during his first impeachment.
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In the Truth Social post announcing the pick, Trump praised her as being “very tough on Violent Criminals.”
“Then, as Florida’s first female Attorney General, she worked to stop the trafficking of deadly drugs, and reduce the tragedy of Fentanyl Overdose Deaths, which have destroyed many families across our Country,” he wrote. “She did such an incredible job, that I asked her to serve on our Opioid and Drug Abuse Commission during my first Term — We saved many lives!”
Trump said Bondi would help depoliticize the Department of Justice.
“For too long, the partisan Department of Justice has been weaponized against me and other Republicans – Not anymore,” he wrote. “Pam will refocus the DOJ to its intended purpose of fighting Crime, and Making America Safe Again. I have known Pam for many years — She is smart and tough, and is an AMERICA FIRST Fighter, who will do a terrific job as Attorney General!”
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Bondi was one of Trump’s earliest significant allies, becoming close during the 2016 primaries when she was attorney general of Florida. After her work as his defense attorney, Trump said he would “love to have her in my administration.” She took a stint at K Street instead, but quickly distinguished herself as a Trump surrogate, becoming a staple in media appearances.
In May 2023, she told Fox News’s Sean Hannity that putting a fearless attorney general in office must be the next Republican president’s top priority.
“It starts at the top with justice. You put in an attorney general who is not scared of anybody and will take out the people who are not honest,” Bondi said. “You move on to the FBI. Replace them, move those guys all over the country if you can’t fire them. Disarm them. Put the good street agents to work to do the job they were put there to do.”
“Then you continue on with the [Drug Enforcement Agency],” she continued. “Give them more resources to fight this international drug crisis. Homeland security — strengthen them, don’t cut them.”
Bondi served as the chairwoman for the Center for Litigation, and co-chair of the Center for Law and Justice at the Trump-aligned America First Policy Institute.
Trump shocked the political world when he announced Gaetz as his pick for attorney general — someone who wasn’t previously on the short list. Gaetz resigned from Congress shortly after.
His weeklong nomination was plagued by doubts from a handful of Senate Republicans and a House Ethics investigation.
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Gaetz was accused of having sex with a 17-year-old, something he stringently denies and was never charged with. Despite this, documents and interviews from the House inquiries leaked to the media included damaging information, ultimately leading Gaetz to voluntarily withdraw from consideration.
“While the momentum was strong, it is clear that my confirmation was unfairly becoming a distraction to the critical work of the Trump/Vance Transition,” he said in a statement announcing his withdrawal. “There is no time to waste on a needlessly protracted Washington scuffle, thus I’ll be withdrawing my name from consideration to serve as Attorney General. Trump’s DOJ must be in place and ready on Day 1.”
